The Buckeyes received another outstanding addition to their 2005 recruiting
class today as cornerback Malcolm Jenkins of Piscataway, New Jersey made it
known that he had decided to attend Ohio State.
Jenkins' decision came down to Ohio State, Virginia Tech, and Rutgers. In the
end, Rutgers was tough to turn down, but the Buckeye coaching staff was a big
factor in his decision.
"Basically, everything was a dead lock until I looked at the coaching
staffs and what coaching staff I feel comfortable with the most, and it was Ohio
State," he said.
The Ohio State atmosphere also played a part in his choice.
"There weren't a lot of negatives between the schools," he said.
"All of them academically had what I want, so it was basically about the
team and the atmosphere."
Ohio State first caught Jenkins' attention with the recruiting letters that
they sent to him, and then Jenkins in turn caught the
attention of the OSU staff at the four-day camp session in June.
"I guess I was on their mailing list, and when I started getting letters
from them, I really started liking it and I wanted to look into it more,"
Jenkins said. "I got together with my parents, and I asked them if I could
attend the camp so I could try to get a scholarship and impress the coaches.
That all worked out how I wanted it to."
Despite being one of thousands of campers, Jenkins, who measured in at 6-0 1/2, 185 and ran a 4.43 at the camp, was able to stand out from
the crowd at camp with a stellar performance.
"I was just doing drills, and the DBs coach (Mel Tucker) came up to me
and was like, 'You do these real, real smooth,'" Jenkins said. "Then
later on, we were doing one-on-ones, and they had me going against the best
receivers there, and the coaches were real impressed. Right there, he was like
'Oh, we gotta get you here!'"
Jenkins is a versatile player who was instrumental in Piscataway's state
championship run last season, their second straight title.
"I started both ways at corner and receiver," he said. "I had
eight interceptions, I think 26 solo tackles and four breakups."
Jenkins projects as a corner at Ohio State.
"They primarily want me to play corner," he said. "I think if
they wanted me to play something else, they would let me, but most likely I
would be coming back to corner anyway."
Malcolm Jenkins is the ninth commitment for the OSU recruiting class of 2005.
He plans on majoring in business at Ohio State. Keep posted to Bucknuts.com in
the coming days for details on how you can hear Malcolm talk about his
commitment on the Bucknuts Radio Hour.